Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain

A reader with the inattentive yet fraternally equine name of Distracted Brony asks:

One thing I’m curious about. Do you have any, how to say this… infrastructure for your writing? Like, notebooks with scientific facts you often need to refer to, half-formed plot ideas, or personal notes on how to write a given character or convey a given idea most effectively? Or do you just hold all that stuff in your head?

All writers I know carry with them at all times a notebook in pocket or purse where he can jot down story ideas as they occur to him. Most also maintain a continually updated file on his home computer labeled ‘story ideas’ where he carries his story ideas, possible titles, scraps of dialog, and so on.

The idea of carrying all the information that goes into a science fiction novel in one’s head is not feasible for anyone other than a mentat.

The notes for my current series is a document in its 375th iteration reaching 164 pages long. This is not the outline, which is the plan of the plot, just the notes, which contains background material.

I run the risk of ruining the mystery and mystique of novel writing, let me describe this monstrous document to anyone curious about my particular, personal writing process. I am not suggesting the creative method is useful for other writers, and I may not use it for other books.

Under the first header is my chart of Orders of Ascensions, including the thematic element they represent, and the conflict in the plot.

The astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed ranking extraterrestrial civilizations based on the amount of energy utilized.  Type I civilization exploits all available resources of its homeworld or energy impinging on it, Type II harnesses all the energy of its star as with a Dyson Sphere, and Type III of its galaxy.

For my purposes, this scale was too crude, since it made no distinction between utilizing the resources of a terrestrial versus a gas giant planet, which I needed to differentiate, as well as clusters of stars, arms of galaxies, and I needed to discriminate between small objects (as the Lesser Magellanic Cloud) and large (as Andromeda). Also, Kardashev did not extend his scale to large and extralarge magnitudes, therefore I have expanded it to include civilizations exploiting all available energy of Clusters and Superclusters (which are Kardashev Type IV and Type V respectively).

Orders of Ascension by Theme and Plot

Scale	Order	IQ	Example	Theme	Plot	Race	IQ
Kardashev  III, IV, V	Seraphim	Octillion 10^27	Horologium  Supercluster (5000 galactic groups)	Fatalism	Malthusians v Amaltheans	Swans (Hermeticist w/ Noösphere aug)	1000
	Cherubim	Septillion 10^24	Virgo Cluster (16 large galaxies in the Cluster)	Gnosticism (pacifist prime-directive)	Esoteric v Exoteric	Anchorites (biotech code)	700
	Thrones	Sextillion 10^21	Andromeda Galaxy (10 times Milky Way size)	Asimovian Totalitarianism	Centripetal  v Centrifugal	Melusine	650
	Archons	Ten Quintillion 10^19	Orion Arm/ LMC (several hundred million stars)	Conflict is needed for evolution	Reptiles v Tyrants	Locusts	500
	Authorities	Quintillion 10^18	M3 in Canes Venatici (500,000 stars)	Deference to Evolution	Darwin v Isaiah	Hormagaunts
Kardashev  II	Dominions	Quadrillion 10^15	M44 Praesepe Cluster (350 Stars)	Banksian Rule of Appetite	Epicurus	Nymphs
	Dominations	100 billion 10^11	Hyades Cluster (131 Stars)	Heinlein Justice is Strength	Thrasymachus	Chimera
	Hosts	Ten billion 10^10	La Superba (Dyson Sphere: 3 solar masses)	LeGuinian Socialism	Marx	Witches
	Principalities	One Billion 10^9	Ain (Dyson Cloud: less than 1 solar mass)	Philosopher-Kings (cf Arisian eugenics)	Socrates, or Lenin	Giants	400
	Virtues	Five hundred million 5*10^8	Asmodel, Cahetel Shcachlil, Achaiah. (superjovian volume)	EE Smithian Intellectual elitism		Ghosts (Early Exarchel)	450
Kardashev  I	Powers	250 million 25*10^7	Jupiter, Neptune (jovian volume)	Bayesian Moral Evolution	Hegel	Hermeticists (biotech aug)	350
	Potentates	800 000 8*10^5	Pellucid, Tellus, Torment (terrestrial volume)	Fatalism v Hope		Daemon (Hyde)	400
	Archangels	10,000 10^4	Selene (planetoid volume)	Faith		Diva (Rania)	450
	Angels	2000	Later Exarchel (earth’s surface)	Catharism v Charity		Scholars	250

 

By Choir—

• THIRD ORDER: Angels, Archangels, (Potentates), Powers
• SECOND ORDER: Virtues, Principalities, (Hosts), (Dominions), Dominations
• FIRST ORDER: (Authorities), (Archons), Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim

Ranked according to size, processing speed, energy consumption, and cognition density.

• Third Order = Nanotechnology (Molecular and Atomic-level Engineering. Artificial Chemistry)
• Second Order = Picotechnology (Subatomic-level Engineering, artificial substances. Artificial Quantum Mechanics)
• First Order = Attotechnology (Preons held together by artificially augmented strong nuclear force. Time dilations on submicroscopic scales via electromagnetic anisotropy.)

I have various notes about technology.

Note on the Propulsion of Solitudines Vastae Caelorum: Using anti-mass, any particle can be vibrated interminably between two fixed points. When mass collides with antimass, it rebounds without exchange of energy. Thus, if suspended between two antimasses, it remains between them, bouncing back and forth without energy exchange or energy loss. Drawing the antimass points closer to each other increases the vibration speed, increasing the heat. But because the mass would almost remain at the same position, the heat would be negative-entropic rather than entropic.When the energy of temperature per particle becomes equal to Planck energy. If it has Planck mass and travels at the speed of light; if the mass is greater, it collapses into a singularity.

And notes about concepts introduced in the plot.

Note on Cognition Density: Note that the “cognition density” of the support-matter is basically the same as with evolved biological humans: the main mass of the life support is the inanimate molten rocky nickel-iron core of the planet, which contains neither information nor intellectual raw material (beauty) affecting the thought of the mind involved—even relatively massive changes to the interior of the planet would have no meaning, no influences on the thought of the biological Noösphere. The “life support” is very widely spread, and, despite the fears of the Greens, major changes to the “meaning” of the ecology could be endured before the material effect of the ecology would negatively affect the human thought process: we would regret the loss of birds to DDT long before we would run out of breathable air or potable water. Even of the life support, the moiety of life support biomass goes to the support of actions other than thought: cows crop grass to feed all the cells in our bodies, not just our brains, so the ratio of sun-energy converted to brain-power is very low. A solar-panel powered cube of logic diamond would have a ratio much closer to unity (depending on how much matter-energy was occupied with maintenance and support).

Under my second header is time lines. I have a small scale time line which goes year by year (for COUNT TO A TRILLION through JUDGE OF AGES), a middle scale time line which goes millennium by millennium (for ARCHITECT OF AEONS) a large scale time line which goes by millions of years, and a very large scale time line by billions of years (for VINDICATION OF MAN and COUNT TO INFINITY). Since these time lines will appear as appendices in the books, I will not repeat them here.

My third header is D&D style character sheets’ where I write down the physical description, costume and props of each character (so that I do not forget Ximen del Azarchel’s eye color). It is filled with little notes like this:

Del Azarchel

1. His past: the son of a minor county official, at age four his house atom-bombed as collateral damaged during the Hindosphere actions against the Jihad. He lived as a street urchin in the slums of Barcelona, preying on and being preyed upon by the Arab lordlings there, while the city was covered in medical foam, and full-scale quarantine practices were in effect.
2. Del Az was a “pilluelo” a street urchin. His mother illegally modified him in her womb (as it turns out, based on the Monument mathematics); the father, who was a Don, had the child DNA tested, and when the DNA was discovered not to be within the statistical limits, divorced the wife and disinherited the son as a bastard—this was the common practice in pre-Kali Andalusia, for even then, the conflict with the Svartdeutsch led to a widespread revulsion against genengineering. At seven, he was thrown from rich circumstances into humble; at eleven, his mother was killed when biomodified soldiers (Jihadists? Svarts?) overthrow the Iberians; he lived from twelve to fourteen as a wretched starvling, eating garbage, and stealing shoes from smaller children; at fifteen he was adopted by “el Cid” the Lord of the Quarter, Trajano Villaamil, a ex-soldier who insisted that every theft and crime serve the cause, that the poor could never be preyed upon, and that the media must be involved in every theft:  his motto was to use evil to defeat the Evil, and for no other purpose. He imposed discipline on his band of young crooks, and soon joined with a more organized underground. He was the Patton of the underworld, insisting on proper dress and forms of conduct for all men. He insisted that Del Azarchel enter University and study to hone his fantastic gift for numbers and visual relations (perhaps due to his bio-manipulated heritage).
3. When Villaamil died in police custody, Del Azarchel fled to Gibraltar, where he was protected by an old friend of Villaamil, a professor named Hengist, who noticed his prodigal abilities in mathematics. For this reason alone, he was absent from the city when it was nuked on the Day of Kali. Del Az learned that whoever controlled the skies would control the earth beneath.
4. He entered the Space Camp on a whim, and was much amused to see his hated enemies, the Hindus, routinely humiliated by the foolish Texan from Japan, Menelaus Montrose: and what made the humiliation delicious was that Menelaus was utterly unaware, utterly oblivious, to the currents and countercurrents of race-hatred and national pride splitting the Hispanosphere from the Indosphere.
5. His sword:

   The words Ultima Ratio Regum were written on the blade, along with the emblem of a horned circle of olive leaves surmounting a cross: the royal insignia of the Hermetic Order. The letters were gold. In and about the letters twined the figure of a red dragon and a white. The tasseled hilts are adorned with the jacinth and chrysoberyl.

Or this:

Rania

• The Royal Arms of Her Serene Highness Rania Ayesha Anne Galatea Grace Angelina Frankenstein Grimaldi of Iberia, are her arms of dominion in right of Monaco. The central shield is decorated, in heraldic terms, fusily (or lozengy) argent and gules. The monks supporting the shield in the coat of arms allude to the conquest of Monaco in 1297, when François Grimaldi entered the city with soldiers dressed as monks, with swords hidden under their cassocks. The collar surrounding the shield represents the Order of St. Charles. The Grimaldi motto, Deo Juvante, is Latin for “With God’s help”.
• Her morganthic husband, the commoner Menelaus Montrose, was given an escutcheon of the three headed Serpent of Aulis chasing sparrows, the heraldry ascribed in the middle age to the mythic Menelaus of Sparta.

I have large sections of note on mathematics and astronomy, using articles cut from Internet columns or encyclopedia, which I used to keep track of who did what. Hence, merely for one chapter in the early section of COUNT TO A TRILLION, I had to make note of what I established for the members of the Hermetic expedition, including, for the Hindosphere members, their caste:

1. • Del Azarchel. He was a mathematician of some fame from his studies of the Navier-Stokes equations.
   • Ramananda (Brahmin)—his work proving the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture relating to general cases of rank greater than one.
   • Dr. Ram Vidura (Kshatriya). His work was in the Poincaré Conjecture.
   • Dr. Bhuti (Vaishya )—work in the extrapolation of Kronecker’s theorem on abelian extensions to base number fields beyond the rational
   • Melchor de Ulloa—won fame for his solution of Hilbert’s 16^th Problem, dealing with the upper bound of the number of limit cycles in polynomial vector fields.
   • Narcís D’Aragó had been included on the expedition for his breakthroughs in the Linear Programming problem, particularly regarding strongly polynomial time-performance in the number of constraints and variables.
   • Sarmento i Illa won his berth for his work in the topology of algebraic curves and surfaces, particularly valuable since topology and knot-theory was the main avenue of approach of most of the Monument symbolism so far translated.
   • Dr. Thiruvalluvar St. Thomas (Untouchable)—had made breakthroughs in the study of Riemann hypothesis and Goldbach’s conjecture

Then comes a list called ‘Certain Basics’ where I write down any figures, names of organizations, or dimensions of props I wish not to forget  (there is at least one place where I made a mistake despite this, and gave two different values for the weight of Montrose’s dueling arm, for example) :

• Cliometry to establish the Concordat is six billion variables
• Montrose’s dueling side arm is Krupp railgun and weighs six pounds. It has eight escort shots. (there was a firearm in Blackie’s house that had six). The last chapter of COUNT TO A TRILLION incorrectly lists the weapon as weighing forty pounds (this is the weight of the armor).
• “As a ship, the Emancipation was a titaness: one hundred thousand metric tons displacement, her overall length twice that of a skyscraper from the First Space Age (2500 ft or 760 meters), with a sail spread of five hundred miles, requiring seventy-five thousand terawatts (= 75,000,000 GW) of laser energy to propel.”
• The Bellerophon statistics are not given in the text, she was identified as lighter than the Hermetic, which again must be assumed to have been smaller than the Emancipation. Hence, 90 000 metric tons, 2000 ft length.
• the Hermetic Order of the Irenic Ecumenical Conclave of Man
• By the 700^th century, the political union of the Local Interstellar Cloud was called Empyrean Polity of Man.
• The Ancient and Honorable Guild of Starfaring and Interstellar Pilgrims Errant
• Loyal and Self-Correctional Order of Prognostic Actuarial Cliometric Stability
• Out from star men spoke of as Epsilon Tauri, the Swans in their songs of malediction named Ain, the Myrmidons numbered HIP 20889, and the Foxes riddles recalled as Oculus Borealis
• Tau Ceti, which the Swans called Durrementhor, the foxes called Tertia Struthionum: the third of the ostriches
• As of the 700th century there were 42 Emancipation Class sailing vessels in operation.
• The name of the supership is Desolations of the Heavens. Solitudines Vastae Caelorum both refers to the vast emptiness of outer space, and to the solitary wastelands to which hermits were wont to retreat.
• All starships are warships, since any mechanism carrying enough power to carry its mass at nearlightspeed across the abyss can use that power destructively. The sailing ships, by leaving their engines at home, minimize this threat.

My fourth header concerns themes. I hesitate to post them, because I have deviated from the initially-planned themes several times, as inspiration strikes (or as inspiration mugs). Inspirations are often nasty things. But I assume my readers are nicer than my inspirations, and at least one reader might be curious as to whose ideas I am shamelessly stealing and from whom. One advantage of being an older writer, is that younger readers may not recognize the even older writers from whom I am shoplifting ideas, and so give me credit for originality where none is due. (This happened considerably with my recently published AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, where many a commentator was awed with the desolate nocturnal and Lovecraftean setting of the piece, which was taken unchanged from THE NIGHT LAND by William Hope Hodgson.)

Theme

Each order represents a different sci-fi philosophy to be mocked.

• The Hermeticists, albeit Montrose does not at first recognize them, are the very ‘Science Council’ seen in ‘Asymptote’—or in other words, the Science Council of Buck Rogers, Lucky Starr, Lensmen, and any other technocracy. The mockery is that such technical warlocks, absent a check on their principles, will use their principles for the Abolition of Man, that is, as a totalitarian mechanism which regards human life as livestock.
• The Ghosts will be our old friends the Transhumanists. The mockery is that self-improvement is actually power-lust, and Gnostic rejection of the real world. Those who do not have some driving love binding them to the real world fall into electronic nirvana.
• The Giants are moral giants, the sons of the Church. They embrace self extinction rather than allow mankind to die.
• Witches are Ursula K. LeGuin type eco-Marxists. The mockery is that envy cannot be the basis of government, family, morality, or life. (They need to use computer emulations to organize their cellular regeneration.)
• The Chimera are Heinlein type militarists, who believe that justice is the will of the stronger. Montrose, who is stronger, merely shoots their leader.
• The Nymphs are Heinlein type orgiastic libertines. Hedonism innately lacks the self discipline needed to organize a technological society.
• The Hormagaunts are Darwinians, who believe in rule by the stronger. Larry Niven type organleggers, not to mention Mother-hunters and population control freaks. The mockery is that their population is low, not high (they will be depicted as having insufficient people to prevent farmland from returning to the wild), and their philosophy merely makes the strong prey on the weak, in the name of eco-emergency. In this case the preying is particularly grisly, since organs and glands are removed from the sellers. The Iatrocrats dictate the terms and the length of life itself. The doctors (who have female Witch organs in them) have a practical immortality.
• The Locusts are A.E. van Vogt Slans or supermen. In this version they can only read each others’ minds, as they are bred for uniformity of neural-radio interface. The mockery is that they are vulnerable to mass-hypnotism and mind control (such as Jommy himself uses) and their attempt to guide mankind peaceably into extinction (as Keir Gray would have it, or the Overlords of Childhood’s End) ends when they themselves are (successfully) guided into extinction by a race higher than themselves.
• The Melusine are A.E. van Vogt Silkie, that is, totalitarians whose children are raised away from them, forced into marriage to ‘Special People’ who can read their minds. In this case, they are the mockers rather than the mocked, as they also control the science of Cleometrics (Psychohistory), and they employ it in the Eron method rather than the Seldon method, and use it to break away from the history-meddling of Del Azarchel and Montrose. (Eron is the main character from Kingsbury’s HISTORICAL CRISIS, whereas Seldon is the psychohistorian from Asimov’s FOUNDATION.)
• Swans—Montrose’s failed attempt to create a perfectly independent being. The Lunarians of Poul Anderson. Being based on the genetic material of pygmy chimps, and having a far lower span of childhood (by five they are fully developed) they lack the human sexual instinct for permanent sexual bonding, and consequently they cannot maintain a technological civilization, or even a civilization at all. The atomized individualists attempt for a time to maintain merely covenant or contractual structures in lieu of family or community, but each such group soon finds more and more of its mores and decisions must be made by the contract-enforcement agencies. The atomized individuals are helpless before the collective power of the state, even of an utterly minimalist libertarian state such as the Lunarians might create. The mockery here is that (far from the posthumans meaning anything to us) the happiness or sorrow of the Swans means nothing to the human beings, and their life or death, expansion or extinction, excites relatively little curiosity. There is an additional layer of mockery in that the Swans are badly designed—they cannot exist as a separate race, and they tend to die off in the colonies.
• Myrmidons—Morlocks from Baxter’s the Time Ships style monsters, asexual and grown in vats. They exist without love or hate, art, religion, or any finer emotion. They are little more than an ant colony. The mockery here is of the Hegelian notion that whatever later is better (something Wells himself did not believe—hence his Morlocks.)
• Potentates (Pellucid)—turns out to be a horse-brain. It is intelligent and loyal. This is meant to be a contrast (if not a slap in the face) to the “Bayesians” who think transhumanity should have no continuity, no family, no emotional relation with its parent species.
• Powers (Jupiter Brain)—the “Bayesians” think it wise merely to create a machine and let it run, learning itself by itself, without any parents to teach it morality. Logically, however, any creature (biological or artificial) which can raise itself by itself is non-altricial, therefore r-strategy therefore egoistical. The moment the advantage of association with humans is less serviceable to its satisfaction than some other alternative, egoism necessitates humanity be sacrificed. The emotional nature related to parental piety, generosity, sympathy, and so on are collective-oriented emotions unrelated to egoism.
• Virtues—Conflict is needed for evolution.
• Principalities (Ain)— Philosopher-Kings (cf Arisia eugenics)
• Hosts (La Superba) — LeGuinian Socialism
• Dominations (Hyades Cluster)— Heinlein Justice is Strength. In STARSHIP TROOPERS, the moral code proposed is that man must be the toughest customers in the galaxy, an in HAVE SPACE SUIT this proposal is affirmed even in the teeth of the Vegans, who are weeding out aggressive species before they grow into a threat. Ironically, Hyades is a slave-race of Praesepe.
• Dominions (Praesepe)— Banksian Rule of Appetite (as seen in PLAYER OF GAMES, etc). Mana falls from the sky, and men are altered to be able to absorb nutrient through skin, and they can ‘indicate’ any chemical they like into their bloodstream or parasympathetic nervous system. This means they can suffer and die while in morphine euphoria, if so they chose (which is the only choice they can really make).
• Authorities (M3 in Canes Venatici)— E.E. Smithian Deference to Evolution “This is the race that will rule the Sevagram.”
• Archons (Orion Arm)— Vanvogtian elitism (cf. the Silkie Authority). Greater intelligence=right to rule.
• Thrones (Andromeda)— Asimovian Totalitarianism (cf. the Second Foundation)
• Cherubim (Virgo Cluster)— Gnosticism (pacifist prime-directive)
• Seraphim (Horologium Supercluster)— Fatalism

 

I have additional notes on the technology and organization of each level of mental topography, as well as notes about the nearest neighbors to Sol:

A DOMINATION is a self-aware nebulae or small cluster. The Praesepe Collective (at M44, 550 ly away) is DOMINION a near neighbor to Sol, and controls the DOMINATIONS at

1. Hyades Cluster (151 lights) –called by Tellus “The Domination”
2. 12 Comae in the Coma Berenices Star Cluster (270 light years).
3. M45: the Pleiades (440 lights)
4. M7. Ptolemy’s Cluster. (800 lights away)
5. M34 in Perseus (1400 lights)
6. Xi Persei in the California Nebula (1500 lights from Sol),
7. M42: The Orion Nebula (1600 lights) centered at Trapezium Cluster, where they are making new stars.—Orion. M42 is destined out outstrip and overtake his master, the Collective of M44.
8. The Cone Nebula (2700 lights)

• The Collective owes fealty to the AUTHORITY at M3. The Collective is a daughter civilization of the long-dead Panspermians, and, like them, was once an organic life form of crystalline vegetative growths adaptable to all planetary environments, and, later, interstellar vacuum.
• Dominations tend to centralize in nebulae, where the density of interstellar medium is thick, travel expenses of ramscoopships is less, and young and energetic stars are at hand for macroscale engineering projects.

And, later in my notes:

The Archons of Milky Way are:
KINDREDS

• (Centaurus Arm), aka Scutum-Crux The Magisterium (life forms divergent here, especially multiple generations of artifacts housed in strange energy-systems. Without consensus, the Magisterium concentrates on mathematical library information only.)   The Magisterium directs the energy of the Furies (Virtues) against the sloth of utopians and the wastefulness of war. Interceded in the ancient Forerunner war (between Sagittarius and Orion) and sowed decimation among the Panspermians. The Magisterium is philosophically a Kindred, a Collaborator and a decentralist. Main centers are far side of the galaxy from Sol.
• Sagittarius Arm (Sagittarius-Carina), Inward of Sol. The Circumincession. Originated from the Omega Nebula. Suffering from severe internal breakdown do to overuse of novae to seed worlds with heavier metallic elements. Leader and eldest of the Archons of the (Kindred) Collaboration. Remnant of the Panspermian Forerunners here. (Sagittarius for the Kindreds sends an emissary to Orion during the Coalescence into Milky Way union to discover the secret of the Playfair Axiom.)
• Core. The Instrumentality. Forerunner race, originally Flats dwelling on the surface of neutron stars circling the super-singularity core.

REPTILIANS

• Perseus Arm, The Colloquium (heads the Great Library System). Reptilians. Originated in the Soul Nebula. Eldest Forerunner race, recollects the previous failed attempt to unify the galaxy under the Canis Major Dwarf inspiration.
• Cygnus Arm (Outer Arm), the Austerity. Reticent and Austere, the Cygni participate reluctantly in Sophotransmogrification, but are impelled by ancient debts of honor owed the Symbiosis, who saved them from the Furies of the Circumincession. Reptilian-strategy, practically anarchic. They do not practice indenture. (Cygnus for the Reptilians sends an emissary to Orion during the Coalescence into Milky Way union to discover the secret of the Playfair Axiom.)
• Lesser Magellanic Cloud. The Symbiosis. Challenger and opponent to the Circumincession for the leadership of the Collaboration. Responsible for the destruction of the Panspermian Forerunners, and foes of their heirs, the Circumincession. Secretly controlled by Andromeda. The Symbiosis was responsible for the astronomical murders which tore stars from Canis Major Dwarf and led to the formation of the Monoceros Ring (This act of stellar murder happened 9.2 gyr ago, or 9,200,000,000 BC. )

And, again:

The Virgo Cluster with its some 2000 member galaxies dominates our intergalactic neighborhood, as it represents the physical center of our Local Supercluster (also called Virgo or Coma-Virgo Supercluster), and influences all the galaxies and galaxy groups by the gravitational attraction of its enormous mass. It has slowed down the escape velocities (due to cosmic expansion, the `Hubble effect’) of all the galaxies and galaxy groups around it, thus causing an effective matter flow towards itself (the so-called Virgo-centric flow). Eventually many of these galaxies have fallen, or will fall in the future, into this giant cluster which will increase in size due to this effect. Our Local Group has experienced a speed-up of 100..400 km/sec towards the Virgo cluster. Current data on the mass and velocity of the Virgo cluster indicate that the Local Group is probably not off far enough to escape, so that its recession from Virgo will probably be halted at one time, and then it will fall and merge into, or be eaten by the cluster.

However, my favorite part of my notes is the header for the Empyrean Polity of Man of the 700th Century. I cannot tell you how many hours I spent with star maps and charts trying to get my distances and directions correct. IN EVERY CASE the star given is one known to have an exoplanet that modern science has detected. I am adhering to the theory that a gas giant will sweep debris clear from the system, otherwise the inner earthlike worlds (which modern science has not detected) would too heavily bombarded to be inhabitable.

There follows a list giving the dominant race and language of each world, and anything established about it in the text, which is too long to reproduce here.

PEDIGREE of Mother Worlds and Colonies within the Empyrean Polity as of the 70^th Millennium

FIRST SWEEP (Swans) 12th	SECOND (Myrmidons) 25th / 21 to 39	THIRD (Hierophants) 37th  / 33 to 58	FOURTH (Patricians) 53rd / 68 to 94	PETTY  (Atavists) 66th / 84 to 100
Sol—Tellus, Mars*, Venus* JUPITER and NEPTUNE	107 Piscium —Eurotas* (from Mars) [Chimera]	58 Eridani —Neodamode
		55 Rho Cancri —Sciritaea
				HIP 10301 in Eridanus—Perioecium*
	61 Ursae Majoris  — Cat Sin [Cats]  (? Tellus)	47 Ursae Majoris — Vital Delectation [Delectables (Nymph Patricians)]
	61 Virginis  — St. Mary’s World (? Tellus)			Epsilon Virginis (Vindemiatrix) —Feast of Stephen* / St. Agnes / St. Wenceslaus. [Loricates]
	Alula Australis [aka Xi Ursae Majoris]—Taprobane (? Tellus)	83 Leonis —Uttaranchal	Regulus, or Alpha Leonis — Here Be Monsters [Anthropovores]	Gliese 1137 in Antlia — Terra Pericolosa [Vampires]
	88 G. Monocerotis — Unicorn (? Tellus)		Zeta Leporis— Svartalfheim
	Wolf 25 in Pisces —We Sing Paeans (? Venus)
	Gliese 884 in Aquarius — We See A Strange Dawn (? Venus)		Hamal [Alpha Arietis] —Mystery of the Second Creation
	Chi-1 Orionis —We Cower Beneath Odd Skies (? Venus)		HR 2622 in Monoceros —Qailertetang
Proxima Centauri—Rosycross* [Nonorthagonals, Foxes] ALTHALIMAIN (?) TOLIMAN	66 G. Centauri  [HR 4523]— Pure Abode of Unreturning Souls also called Suddhavasa-Anagamin	Alpha Mensae —Land of Hungry Needle-Necked Wraiths [Wraiths]	Gliese 31.5 in Tucana — Shumisen, also called Mountain of the Lovely Peach Trees	HR 6 in Phoenix — World of Willows and Flowers [Overlords]
	HR 4458 in Hydra — Felicity of the Silent Soul*			[Pyriphlegethon]
Epsilon Eridani—Nocturne*		Achernar — Orphan + 100 (34th )
	HR 753 in Cetus — Waiting to Die
	p Eridani — Open Airlocks	18 Scorpii — Unsuit
61 Cygni— Odette*, Odile* VONROTHBARTH ZAUBERRING	HR 8832 in Cassiopeia — Masochists’ Delight (Odette)			[Styx]
Epsilon Indi— Porphyry	Zeta Tucanae— Cursed Earth
Tau Ceti— December*, Yule*, Wintertide*, Samhain* [Hibernals] TWELVE CATALLACTIC	Zeta Reticuli— Venture Prospect* (December)	Epsilon Reticuli —Determined Endpoint Project	Pi Mensae — Onwardness	[Cocytus]
Omicron Eridani— Gargoyle*	284 G. Eridani — Lingering Malice (Gargoyle)
	Tabit [aka Pi 3 Orionis] — Fifteen Masks of Uncaring Fate
70 Ophiuchus—Aesculapius* [Breatharians]	41 Arae — Nepenthe for Woe
	Xi Boötis— Euphrasy* [Iatrocrats, Reticents]	44 Boötis  — Schattenreich and Rime  [Ghosts, Hibernals, Reticents]		Kappa Coronae Borealis — Aerecura (Schattenreich) [Sworns]
		Arcturus or Alpha Boötis —Nightspore [Summerkings]	[Acheron]	Iota Draconis aka Eldsich: — Torment*
Gliese 570 in Libra— Walpurgis [Nicors, Giants]	Chara [aka Beta Canum Venaticorum] — Joyous [Swan-Foxes called Joys]	Gliese 490 in Canum Venaticorum — Vayijelal — existence not confirmed	Zubenelgenubi — Aaru  (from Chara)
	MLO 4  (HR 6426) in Scorpio — Horrific Vision of Nagual (Walpurgis)		Xi Scorpius —Bloody Water Poisoned Air
Altair in Aquila — Covenant* [Hierophants] IMMACULATE CONSECRATE	HR 7722 in Capricorn — Preceptor Joachim Voor’s World (Covenant)	51 Pegasi —Chrysaor
		85 Pegasi  —Geryon	[Lethe]
Eta Cassiopeiae— Outrage and Calm	HR 511 in Cassiopeia — New Seed (Outrage)
36 Ophiuchi— Albino* [Swans]	12 Ophiuchi — Dust [Anarchists, Aberrants]	Rasalhague  — Penance* [Optimates (Swan Patricians)]
HR7703 in Sagittarius— Gilgamesh and Enkidu
82 Eridani— Cyan* (Myrmidon throneworld) CERULEAN	Gamma Leporis— Broceliande		HIP 12961in Eridanus  — Land of the Young
Delta Pavonis— Splendor* PEACOCK		Gamma Pavonis — To Prevail
	Fomalhaut — Plenary Triumph
23 earths 15 stars 16 potentates	27 earths 27 stars (50 earths / 42 stars) 4 potentates	14 earths 13 stars (64 earths / 55 stars) 1 Potentate	9 earths / 9 stars (73 earths / 64 stars)	8 earths / 6 stars (81 earths / 70 stars) 3 Potentates

LEGEND: *=indicates Potentate (living terrestrial planets) CAPITALS are Powers (living Gas Giants) , BOLD CAPITALS are Principalities (living system-wide engineering).

 

About John C Wright

John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.

December 18, 2014 @ 11:48 am

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